Regarding NT and side decks, here is my observation. First, I'd love a boat with side decks like the Flemming picture above. However, that is not currently in our budget. As for our NT, we do not have side decks, but we do have the interior space as a tradeoff. We do have a narrow area of nonskid along the side decks that works fine for us when rafting up, but I wouldn't walk out there in bad weather. What we do have is great pilothouse doors on either side that allow me to pull up to a dock, and step right out with line in hand. I can even reach in to bump the boat into or out of gear or hit the thruster from the dock as I'm tying lines. It works for us, but I'm not saying it is the best or only way to go. Just our experience.
One other person commented previously that the NT 32/34 is too small for a retirement boat. While our plan is to eventually move up to a NT 37/39 someday, we actually comment all the time that our NT is the perfect size for us - a couple that spends days to a couple weeks on the boat at a time, and only ocassionaly has friends on board for more than a day cruise. In sum, for us, we could easily spend weeks or months on this boat. Now that may not work for others and, yes, we would like to move up one day, but we could also be perfectly happy with this boat for the long term. One thing I always tell my wife is when I say I want to get a bigger boat, make me go to the marina and wash ours first, then see if I still feel the same.
Lastly, for the same money we could have gone larger with another brand, but for us the NT had everything we wanted, including the pilot house, upper deck for entertaining (we have a bimini and full rails), quality of construction, single Cummins, full keel, and good resale to name a few. Everyone will have a different list, but if I had to do it again I would buy the same boat, for us.